What makes Gayle and Sehwag so formidable?

Mike Haysman in his blog on supersport.com attempts to analyse the factors behind Gayle and Sehwag's ability to clinically execute and thrash an attack to smithereens that leaves everybody stunned.

Let's make one thing perfectly clear right at the off. Apart from both having 'an eye like a dead fish', they are gifted with extraordinary ability, hence the continued savagery they are able to employ. When they are in the character of a one-man wrecking machine, with strike rates often in excess of 200, they do it for a significant period of time. It isn't a lucky cameo teetering on extermination; it's a game breaking performance of duration aided by an uncluttered mind.